Formally withdrawing club's initial rating of player as a guard (8)

'formally withdrawing club's initial rating' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'player as a guard' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'player' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is found within the answer.
'as' could be 'in' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'in' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?